Pre-Match Report
BVB versus VfB: the fixture with the most goals in the league
The scenario: Six places, but only three points separate eleventh-placed Borussia Dortmund from fifth-placed VfB Stuttgart. With a victory, the Black & Yellows could draw level with the Swabian side. VfB failed to pick up a point in their two most recent Bundesliga games, losing 2-0 in Mainz and 2-1 at home against Mönchengladbach.
Home and away: After eleven home wins in a row across various seasons and competitions, there has not been a home win in the SIGNAL IDUNA PARK (three draws, two defeats) since the end of November. Stuttgart are ninth in the away table and have three wins, three draws and three defeats from their nine away games this season. Only Bayer and Bavaria have lost fewer games on foreign soil.
Head-to-head record: BVB have not tasted victory against VfB for five competitive games, but have won six of their last nine home games, in each of which, with one exception, at least three goals have been scored. Only once have Stuttgart conceded seven goals in the league – in the 7-1 thumping in Dortmund on 14 March 1964. In the last nine matches in the IDUNA PARK SIGNAL, a whopping 38 goals have been scored – more than four per match (26-12 from BVB's point of view). VfB have failed to score in Dortmund more often than against any other side (13 times).
Personnel matters: Serhou Guirassy has scored in each of the past four competitive games (five times in total), giving his side an important 1-0 lead each time. The 28-year-old recently had an even longer goal series in the VfB Stuttgart jersey. 40 of Guirassy's 52 Bundesliga goals were to give his side the lead, equalise or draw within one goal of the opposition (including the first goal of the game some 20 times). In the first half of the season, Guirassy scored the first of his 09 Bundesliga goals for BVB in Stuttgart.
Statistics: Stuttgart have accumulated 32 points so far – eight less than at the same stage last season (40). This is also due to the fact that VfB have already drawn more games (five) than in the entire last season (four times). Only Bayern have scored more penalties (seven) than VfB (five). The Swabians have won each of the most recent seven games in which they took a 1-0 lead.
Last season: On Matchday 28, 81,365 spectators saw a balanced first half with little goalmouth action, before BVB looked to press in the second half and were caught on the counter in the 64th minute. Predictably, it was Guirassy, back then still in the VfB jersey, who made it 1-0. The more clinical Stuttgart side celebrated a somewhat fortunate victory looking at the expected goals (XG: 2.1 to 1.6 in favour of BVB). "We played a good game against a top team that doesn't make many mistakes. But unfortunately, we made one mistake too many and could not take advantage of the opportunities we had," said the coach at the time Edin Terzic.
The biggest victory: 7-1 was the scoreline on 14 March 1964 in the first Bundesliga season. Timo Konietzka scored four times in front of 28,000 spectators at the Rote Erde! The remaining goals were scored by Lothar Emmerich (2) and Franz Brungs. Rolf Geiger had made it 1-1 for VfB.
Compiled by Boris Rupert